Saving Souls
by Psychic Karate
Summary: The Apple of Enlightenment has foretold, once again, that a group of boys and girls (and one dog) will stop a flow of great evil from corrupting time and space. But before they can confront this evil directly from its source, they must first save themselves...
1. things happen-finally! - as told by ness

**I do not own Nintendo. **

00000

"Poo, stop it." Jeff says irritably. He is typing on a Macbook, probably answering the many emails Tony sends him each day.

Poo flicks away a mosquito, his finger sending it spinning away. "What do you want me to stop doing, Jeff? Because I would be more than glad to if you specified what it was."

Jeff adjusts his glasses, still typing. "Stop talking. It's getting on my nerves, and I want to finish this."

"Finish answering Tony's emails? He sends like thirty a day. You don't have to answer ALL of them." I say, wondering how Jeff can put up with his best friend and not Poo.

Jeff frowns, but continues typing. His fingers move in a blur over the keyboard.

Paula sighs. "Jeff! The only reason we're out here is because I wanted you to get more social! And all you're doing is typing on your laptop."

"Maybe it's because your social excursions are fruitless," he shoots back. There is no reply, until Paula snatches it away, closes the cover, and stuffs it in my backpack. I zip it shut firmly, fully agreeing with Paula's decision.

"There." she says with finality. The rest of the Chosen Four look at each other. It's a beautiful day outside in the park, with fluffy white clouds and just the perfect temperature, but already I knew it wasn't going to be a fun day. A week ago, Paula had set up a project: Make Jeff more social. Liiike... face-to-face social. Needless to say, it wasn't working. It was just making things awkward.

"You know what would really make this day?" I ask. Poo looks up.

"What do you mean by the terms 'make this day'?" he says, a little confused.

"Not an ice cream sundae, not a big 'ole piece of steak, not a teddy bear. An adventure," I answered myself.

"How incredibly cliché," Jeff mutters. He's now typing away on his iPad. Paula grits her teeth and tugs the Apple device from his fingers.

I continue. "You remember the good old days? Fighting enemies every five seconds, saving towns, meeting all those new people? I kind of miss those days..."

"You actually miss the days when the world was in danger and I had to save it?" Jeff mutters, pulling out his phone.

"You were not alone, Jeff. Miss Paula and Master Ness were there to help, and I as well." Poo remarked idly. Paula covered her face with her hands and took Jeff's phone, too.

I waved my arms around for emphasis. "I mean, I NEVER get to use PK Rockin anymore!" Ending the statement with a dramatic sigh, I hoped I was making my predicament sound a lot worse than it actually was. "And PK Rockin is supposed to be MY SIGNATURE MOVE!"

"Okaaay... okay... we know, we've HEARD all of this before..." Jeff mumbles while fiddling with his glasses. Incredibly aloof, quiet, and sarcastic were three of Jeff's most prominent traits. Now, him having run out of Apple Kid's miraculous touch-screen inventions, I was probably going to have to count "grumpy" as one too. I mean, if you had to describe Jeff, you would _have_ to call him grumpy. And maybe you would say "smart", but really? Jeff's a genius when it comes to science and other mind-blowing stuff like that, but when it comes to anything that's applied in the real world, he knows nothing.

Allow me to demonstrate.

"Hey Jeff," I say casually. "I've been meaning to ask you this for a while."

There is no response, until my question comes.

"In 'The Eagleland Idol', when did Simon leave?"

You should have seen his face. He was like, "what..."

So pathetic. I could have answered that question in my sleep. Okay, so maybe a few people would argue about that being "something you can apply in the real world." But everyone knows when Simon left.

Paula stands and stretches, looking up towards the sky. The sun shines as brightly as before. There was nothing wrong with the world at the moment, which really bothered me. I might be considered a bad person for thinking this, but I really wish there was. Well, maybe some parts of the adventure I had weren't exactly enjoyable, but overall, it was fun. Very fun. Fun enough so that I would miss it when it was over.

Which, now that I think about it, kind of reminds me of drugs.

Well anyway, I lean back and enjoy the warm weather and the soft grass. A few birds circle up high, just dots against the bright blue sky (whoa that rhymed). I seriously hope they don't poop or anything. That would not be fun. And from that height? Deadly as a bullet.

Jeff seems to have gotten his phone back somehow, because I hear the small chimes of text messages and the rush of rapid-fire texting. Nice, Jeff. I wouldn't be surprised if he managed to build a phone using dry stalks of grass, rather then steal it back.

I don't notice this at first... but the sky starts to darken. Very subtle, but it's starting to really get dark. I check my watch. It's only 3:56... I sit up as fast as I can, still gazing at the sky. Probably a cloud, but you never know.

"Hey... where did everyone else go?" Paula asks, her voice a frightened squeak. Looking around the park, I see that no one but us are there.

"Great!" Now something can actually happen! Finally.

"Great? The sky is getting abnormally dark, we're alone, and you think it's GREAT?!" Jeff says, his voice rising.

Okay. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. But still! Great!

A buzzing sound presses forward in my ears, the shrill whine getting louder and louder. There's a bright flash of light that blinds us for a second, and a voice echoes.

"A bee I am..."

"Not?" I finish for it. 'Cuz, you know...

"What? No! Whaddya mean? I'm a bee! What else can I bee, oops, I mean be?" The slightly agitated-sounding bee fully reveals itself from behind a tree. Paula and Jeff are frozen with fear, while Poo has adopted a defensive stance.

"My name is Honey, and the world is in danger."

00000

**Okay so that's the beginning of this slightly dumb story I'm writing. I'm sorry it's short, I promise the next one will be a lot longer. And not all the chapters will be narrated by Ness, who is very random and off topic.**

**Ness: Well, I'm sorry!**

**It's not okay, Ness! Please tell me what you thought so I can improve. But how can you improve a story as terrible as this one?**


	2. dang, no idea - as told by ness

**Do I need to say the same thing every time?**

00000

"The world is in danger, and you need to save it." the bee says. Impossibly enough.

No... wait. I cover my ears, but I can still hear its "voice". The bee isn't speaking, it's communicating using telepathy. In other words, it was speaking directly in our minds.

I frown. There was only one bee I knew who could do that. And he's dead...

"Are you... Buzz Buzz's ghost?" I ask. Jeff's mouth curves slightly downward. That was the only way I could see that he wasn't impressed with my logic. Well, I'm not either, Jeff.

The bee continues buzzing in agitated circles.

"No! I'm Buzz Buzz's sister, Honey! And I have come to deliver a message. The world is in danger, and you need to save it!"

Wait... SISTER?!

"You're a girl bee?!" I exclaim in shock. Paula nudges me and hisses something in my ear, but I'm not paying attention.

"Yes! I have come to deliver a message! The world is in danger, and you need to save it!" it, well, _she _repeats.

I step backwards. Great. Now a hyper girl bee is telling us we need to go on another adventure. That's almost worse then when a bee with a cheesy name told me to go and save the world, then gets himself squashed. Like, two seconds after he came. At least it's better then before, when there was absolutely nothing to do except play Pokemon.

"Okay..." I say, slightly put off.

Honey finally stops buzzing around and alights on the corner of a park bench.

"Finally... Gosh, it didn't take _that _long for Ninten and the others to get the message. Must be the over-bloated jelly brains." she says.

Double-great. A _sassy_ bee.

"Who's Ninten?" I ask. I don't even bother being offended by her.

Honey flicks her wings.

"You're not going on this adventure alone, you know. I don't think you would even survive the easy part." she says. "Ninten and his gang are another group of friends who will help on the quest. After informing you guys, I'm going to travel in the future to talk to Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney."

"You mean we're going to meet new people?" Paula asks.

"Yup. Then I'm going to PK Teleport you guys to a certain location, where you'll be able to meet them."

_Now_ I'm a little insulted. She thinks we can't do it alone and we most certainly CAN, but I don't say anything.

"Right. Okay, now that you know, I'm leaving to recruit another few people on this quest. I'll be back in a couple of minutes to teleport you guys. Ta-ta!"

The bee waves one of its front legs and she streaks away, disappearing in a blink and leaving the faint scent of honey behind.

Jeff is worried, I can see that much. He rubs the frame of his glasses nervously while Paula, on the other hand, is incredibly excited.

"New people?" she squealed. "Yes! Maybe there'll be girls I can talk to!"

I hope the same thing. Since we were the only people with her on our last adventure, she had to dump all of her gossip and girl talk on us. Or else, if she couldn't get what she wanted to say off of her skin, she would explode or something. Or at least have a seizure from all of her withheld information.

Poo narrows his brown-black eyes like a hawk.

"Do you suppose we can trust these people to help us on this adventure? And what of the strange bee?"

"Meh, the bee'll probably get squashed before we even start... and I'm pretty sure you can trust her." I reply. "The other people who're going to help? Not so sure about them."

"How do you know?" asks Poo. I grin and twist my baseball cap forwards.

"Experience." I answer. "Lots and lots of experience." Flashing a quick peace sign, I stand and stretch, averting Poo's questioning gaze on purpose. It annoys him, so I keep it up.

"I'm not really looking forward to meeting them, actually..." Jeff says. "I mean, well, I'm not that outgoing or anything, and I'm not around people I talk to that much."

Paula smiles, lighting up possibly the whole park. "I think it's great that there'll be other people with us! I'll meet new friends, and Jeff'll also get more social! Ness'll get what he wants, and Poo will be able to put his martial arts training into action. It's a win-win situation for _everybody!_" Her smile soon rivals the light from a thousand suns.

God, if she wasn't Paula, I would have thrown up.

We wait awhile, sitting around in the small park and not really knowing what to do. Jeff doesn't seem happy about anything that had just happened. Poo is gazing up at the sky, mouthing words. Paula is excited but I can see a hint of anxiety in her eyes. Nobody had been expecting the sudden turn of events, not even me.

A yellow streak zips past my nose and around Jeff's head. It gently settles down, sparks of PSI power glinting along her wings. The bee was back.

"Alright. Now it's time for me to teleport you guys to the meeting place. Let's goooooo!" The yellow and black bee buzzes up high. Honey yells "PK Teleport!" and she starts to fly in rapid circles around the group.

There is a burst of PSI power, and the air around us thickens into a blur. I feel a sudden rush of wind, whipping at my clothes, and a pressure beneath my eyes. My eyes force-close and cold suddenly explodes over my skin, but in a second we're there.

Where _there _is, I'm not sure.

We appear to be inside a nice, fancy building that looks very Asian, but that's impossible. You can't teleport inside a building. It would be like flying a plane into Mt. Everest, but ten times worse.

I turn to the bee that brought us here with a confused look, but Jeff beats me to it.

"How is it possible that we have teleported inside of a building? Teleportation, or at least the form we use, merely forces the user or users to move very, very fast. It doesn't make us disappear and reappear. Trying to teleport underground or inside of a building would just make us ram into the wall." Jeff says matter-of-factly.

There is no answer, until a few seconds later.

"Why do you think we're inside of a building?" Honey says.

I blink. "Wait, we're not? It sure looks like we are, though..."

The bee hums thoughtfully. "You guys are humans. You see this place one way. I'm a bee. I see it as a large, flowery field, full of trees and beehives."

"Wait, why?" Paula asks.

Honey climbs up one of the chairs. "This is one of three places where space and time are interconnected with a strong, mental bond. Time has no meaning here. Since its true shape is too obscured and vague, it mimics whatever place you feel the most at home in."

Poo frowns. "Then why are we all seeing the inside of a building?"

"That's easy to answer. The... costumes this place puts on takes your species and finds what is the most important thing to them. That's why the four of you don't all have separate visions." Honey says.

She continues. "I brought you here because you'll be able to meet with the eight others who will accompany you on your journey. They are already here."

Paula's eyes light up. Jeff groans, and Poo looks around.

Eight figures slowly materialize in the room, and come into view. Most of them are kids around my age, but there is also a dog and some big buff guy. I look at each of them in turn.

"Hi. My name is Ninten." One boy introduces himself. The first thing I notice about him is that he's wearing a baseball cap, like me. I tend to respect those who approve of my sport. The next thing I notice is the striped shirt and shorts... like mine. And the dark hair... like mine. My eyes widen and his eyes mirror my movements.

We look almost exactly the same.

The only way you could tell us apart is his bandanna tied around his neck. Everything else, excluding the color of his clothing, matches me like a mirror.

Creepy...

"Umm... I'm Ness. And did you steal my style?"

Ninten looks suspiciously at me. "Dude, no. This is my style. Like, I came up with it first. You're the one who stole it!"

I shoot a glare at him. "What? I've looked like this all my life! It's _you_ who stole it!"

He starts to answer angrily, but one of his friends stops him.

"Ninten, we have to travel with these people. So try not to argue," she says. The girl standing next to Ninten has blond hair and is wearing a small pink hat.

He sighs, and gives me one last death glare. "Alright, Ana, but it's going to be really hard. With _him_ along, anyway."

I frown, and turn away. Sheesh. What did I ever do to make him mad?

Standing near Ninten and his friend, Ana, is some weird kid wearing circle-shaped glasses. He kinda reminds me of Jeff, because of his... well, I call it "smart aura". He looks like someone who would be obsessed with science.

On the other side of the room, the large guy is talking to Poo, nodding and smiling. Poo smiles too, and unsheathes his long, silver sword. I tense up for a second - was Poo planning to attack? But no, he was just showing it to him.

I introduce myself to another kid and his friends, determinedly trying to forget about Ninten. This kid has awesome blond hair in a cowlick and is wearing stripes.

"Hey, I'm Ness." I say, offering a hand to him.

"Lucas." he replies. He takes my hand uncertainly.

Immediately at contact, I feel sparks traveling from hand to hand in both directions. I let go of his hand quickly. The sparks... At that moment, I realize something very, very important. When I had held Paula's hand throughout my first adventure, I had felt the same thing. It happened with Poo as well, but I never felt it with Jeff.

That could only mean one thing.

"Wait, Lucas! You have PSI?" I say, eyes widening.

Lucas looks surprised.

"You know about that?" he asks. I nod quickly.

"Yeah, I use it a lot. So does Paula and Poo."

He smiles.

"I rely on my PSI attacks a lot. Kumatora is the only one I know who does too, besides..." He breaks off suddenly. He blinks a little and sets his mouth in a hard line.

"What is it?" I ask, a little concerned.

"N-nothing." Lucas replies, smiling a forced-looking grin. "Anyway, Kumatora's the tough-looking girl with the spiky pink hair. My dog, Boney, is right here, next to me. Duster is him. Yes, the one with the slight limp." I look to where he's pointing. Duster is deep in conversation with the small kid with the circle glasses, Boney is a small brown dog that reminds me of my own, and Kumatora is arm-wrestling the big buff guy. I'm not sure, but I think I overheard Ana saying his name is Teddy.

Strange name. It doesn't fit his "tough guy" demeanor at all.

I look around. Jeff is all scrunched up in the corner, probably trying to avoid everyone. Great job, Jeff. Nice to see that you're really trying to make friends here. I turn back to Lucas, and shrug. I've given up on Jeff's friend-making abilities a long time ago anyway.

"Well, nice meeting you, I guess."

He smiles and nods. "Yeah, you too."

"ALRIIIIIIIIGHT!" A surprising loud mental voice explodes out of Honey the bee's mouth. Well, mandibles. Eating hole? I dunno. "THAT's ENOUGH CHIT CHAT! Time to START THE ADVENTURE!"

We all grumpily gather around the chair the bee was sitting on. The people who were having conversations before quickly exchanged a last few words, and Kumatora glares at the smirking Teddy, who had won the arm-wrestling match.

Honey waits a few seconds for everyone to quiet down, and starts to speak.

"As you all know, there is another great evil threatening to dispose of the earth like someone's trash. Well, one man's trash is another man's treasure, right? We want to survive. We want to live and keep living. So I recruited you guys, gathered from the farthest reaches of the earth, from both the worst times and the best times. Most of you have the special psychic gift, PSI. The ones who don't are special in their own ways. But all of you have something in common- you have all saved the world before. And we need to do it again.

"This great evil... it resides in a place similar to this one. A place that connects both space and time, allowing you to travel to any place or time you wish. I told you guys already that there are only three of these such places. It is in the biggest, and the worst. That place is so overflown with pure _evil _that one step inside would rip your heart up and liquefy your soul, like a banana in a blender. That's why we can't go there yet.

"So what do we do, you say? We do what we need to do. We need to make sure we can survive the darkness of the place. We need to make sure we _live. _We need to make sure we can save everyone and everything, from every time and every place. To do that...

"We must save ourselves."

There is a pause. One split-second pause. It doesn't last long.

The group erupts into furious objections. I am no different, and I argue along with the other twelve. Even Boney the dog is barking loudly. The lives of hundreds of other people come first! Not _us_!

Honey flicks her wings and clears her throat. The room quiets significantly.

"You must remember that barging blindly into _it's_ stronghold is the worst thing to do. Because without you guys, the rest of all humans- and bees- are pretty much gone. No pressure, heh heh. So the only possible choice is to gather twelve _soulsavers_, and use them to be able to survive the overwhelming darkness of the evil place. To put it simply- soulsavers are objects which have the power to confine your soul in a safe place, thus "saving" your soul. Simple enough?"_  
_

Kumatora raises her hand. "Wait, but how do we find them?" she asks. Good question.

Honey raises her front legs. "Each soulsaver is unique to each person. They'll all be different, but you'll know which is yours one you see it. As for where they are, I honestly don't know. There are a lot scattered all over the world, just in case something like this happens. The only one that I know of is one that's hidden under the waters of Lake Tess in Foggyland."

Under Lake Tess! Are you kidding?

"B-but it's super cold over there! And none of us can breath underwater, the last time I checked." I say.

"Well, you'll have to handle it yourself." The bee replies. What a useful bee. "If you've all met each other and stuff, I suppose you can leave now. You may always return here using the soulsavers. Goodbye, and good luck."

_Goodbye, and good luck..._

I nod. Immediately the room begins to dip and sway, the colors mixing together and blending down to nothing. The twelve of us were standing in a place, a pocket of complete blankness, until slowly, Winters begins to draw itself out beyond us. I glance over to my friends, and hesitantly take a step forward.

The cold hits us like some giant snowy electric fan. I shiver and look behind me, but there is nothing but forest stretching out into every direction. Jeff seems to know where he's going, though. Why wouldn't he? He lives here. He trudges forward through the snow, and we follow him, a lonely line of kids determined to save the world, again.

**00000**

**A/N: Soooo cheesy... anyway, thanks to xiao mu dan, TalesofAdventLover, and ShadowFan9001 for reviewing. **

**I have bad feelings about the way this story will turn out... okay there will be romance, but not a lot. ****Okay desu ka?**

******Alright, see you guys later.**


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